The Union ministry of corporate affairs, which regulates the affairs of registered companies, was quick to pounce on the allegations against BJP President Nitin Gadkari. Gadkari and the Purti Group he was heading until a few months ago have become targets of several allegations, including their having received corporate favours such as unsecured loans and having routed funds through letter-head companies that do not exist on the ground.
Shedding the inhibitions shown recently when similar allegations surfaced against Robert Vadra, M Veerappa Moily, minister for corporate affairs, on Tuesday said, “I have told our ministry to make some discreet inquiry to find out what exactly is the matter... are there any violations of the Companies Act?” Moily added the ministry would probe it as the matter was in the public domain. “It is all coming in the newspapers,” he said.
Media investigations have traced the registered offices of companies that invested in Purti Group to slums and a building under construction, among others. According to filings of Purti Power and Sugar, the Purti Group flagship, Global Safety Vision, a company part of the D P Mhaiskar-promoted Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Group, has extended a loan of Rs 164 crore. “The company is paying the implied interest in weekly instalments,” the filing showed. IRB Group is said to have won several road contracts in Maharashtra during the tenure of Nitin Gadkari as public works department minister in the Sena-BJP government.
| THE STORY SO FAR |
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Documents filed with the registrar show this loan had been given against the collateral of “a parcel of land measuring 47.69 hectares together with the structures and building thereon situated lying at Mouza Kinhala and Mouza Khurspar Tahsil of Umred in Nagpur district”.
In its prospectus filed with the Sebi in February 2008, IRB Infra, the listed arm of IRB Group, had disclosed that Global Safety Vision Pvt Ltd was a promoter group entity. However, in an exchange filing on Tuesday, IRB Infra clarified that “Global Safety Vision Pvt Ltd is not and has never been a subsidiary of IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd or part of IRB Group. Neither IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd nor any of its downstream subsidiaries have ever committed or made any investments in Global Safety Vision Pvt Ltd.”
| PURTI POWER AND SUGAR: Financials for FY 11 | |||
| Total fixed assets Rs 208 crore | Current assets Rs 19.29 crore | Paid-up capital Rs 68.90 crore | Reserves Rs 24.41 crore |
| Loan funds Rs 166 crore | Revenue Rs 154.49 crore | Expenditure Rs 163.50 crore | Net loss Rs 9.01 crore |
| Source: MCA documents | |||
RoC (registrar of companies) documents further showed that Nagpur Sahakari Bank, Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Society, Shikshak Sahakari Bank and Wardha Nagari Sahakari Adhikosh are among the major lenders to Purti Power and Sugar. These cooperatives have lent between Rs 70 lakh and Rs 15 crore to Purti Power. Both Gadkari and the company have denied any wrongdoing. Gadkari has also said he resigned as director 14 months ago and was ready for any investigation. Documents accessed by Business Standard showed he ceased to be a director on August 27, 2011. However, within a month, the company appointed Gadkari’s son Nikhil Gadkari as joint managing director of Purti Power for a period of three years.
India Against Corruption (IAC), which first levelled allegations against Gadkari last week, brushed aside the minister’s statements. “He had done a probe into Vadra’s accounts too and said nothing was amiss. Now, he would say the same thing about Gadkari, too,” Prashant Bhushan of IAC said. “We alleged a nexus between the NCP and Gadkari in Maharashtra. Now, we have been proved right,” Arvind Kejriwal of IAC said.